Gabrielle Giffords is starring in a new TV ad urging Congress to act on gun-control measures such as universal background checks.

"Let's get this done," says Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman and Democrat who has become a leading gun-control advocate since she was shot in the head in January 2011.

Giffords speaks slowly but clearly as she narrates the ad paid for by Americans for Responsible Solutions, the new PAC she and her husband Mark Kelly co-founded to promote gun control. Somber images reminding viewers of mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., Oak Creek, Wis., and Tucson — where six people died in the rampage that wounded Giffords — pass on the screen as Giffords speaks.

"We have a problem. Where we shop; where we pray; where our children go to school," Giffords says. "But there are solutions we can agree on, even gun owners like us."

The ad is the first by Giffords' super PAC and will run in Washington and the districts of the top four congressional leaders: House Speaker John Boehner (Cincinnati), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (San Francisco), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Las Vegas) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Louisville, Ky.)

Americans for Responsible Solutions says the ad is backed by a "significant, six-figure buy" and will run this week on Fox, MSNBC and CNN, including on Tuesday as a bookend to President Obama's State of the Union address. There will also be an "aggressive and strategic presence" on the Internet, including on Facebook.

Giffords, who resigned from Congress last year to deal with her recovery, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month in the first hearing since 20 students and six educators were killed at the shooting Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook school in Newtown. Obama has proposed an assault weapons ban, background checks and a limit on the capacity of ammunition clips but the legislation faces an uphill battle in a divided Congress.

The TV commercial notes that nine out of 10 Americans support universal background checks, a finding that came in a CBS/New York Times poll released in January. Such a requirement would mean criminals and the mentally ill would not be able to buy weapons. Kelly has said a background check would prevented Jared Loughner, the shooter in Tucson, from purchasing a gun because he had a history of mental illness.

Giffords and Kelly will be attending Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.